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Boulder dash and I got out for a day and he just smoked me ! Lots of hard work in the new spots but it looks like I need to chose a different area
Enjoy !!
Boulderdash`s is on right Mine on the left ......

Managed to get down into the lower desert today after a lengthy period of painting my house and doing other catch-up projects. Ran across this fist'y dude crossing the dirt road ahead of me. By the time I fumbled around and found my camera it was up starting into the brush and dry grass. Once it caught site of me it coiled up and was ready for some serious business. Attitude-wise, it wasn't taking any S@#?!! from anyone, nor anything. It's a little hard to see in the photo's, as it is blending into the background very well. I let it be it's cantankerous-self and drove on over to a new( to me anyway) wash where I did manage to find this 1.02 Gram flat-pancake-shaped nugget. I was using my 14" Evo coil, which I haven't been using much of. Also managed to pull out about 15 chunks of old lead bullets;...a good sign that no one has been detecting up this particular wash.

So I thought I'd post an update on what's been found since "The Best Day Ever".
I've been back to this location a few times now and there's still gold there, but it's getting much harder to find.
I went out there yesterday with the modded 4000 and the 11" Commander and picked up a couple more for just over half a gram.
Happy Hunting !!
Luke

Although this video is about 6 months Old, It was (almost) our first nugget found since we got to spend the day with him learning the ropes.
Comment on the video, I'm going to start recording more videos as time goes on, so like, and subscribe and hopefully more color will come my way!
Thanks A LOT!!!

Jim was a good friend and mentor to many of us, especially those of us who got involved in nuggetshooting in the pre-1990 era. In the late 1980's he would frequently visit us at the editorial offices of "Treasure" Magazine, where many happy hours were spent "talking gold.". He was rarely absent from GPAA Gold Shows in Southern California, Las Vegas, or Phoenix/Mesa. At one such Show he approached my booth, handed me a spectacular specimen of auriferous quartz, and asked me "Where do you think this was found in Southern California?. Studying it, I answered "[site A]". "Nope." "[site B?]." "Nope." "[site c?]" "Nope." I then asked, as he turning away "So where?" "Ain't tellin'" was his response. Then he added, "but I now know of 3 new places to try!"
,

Took the rig out on my first long trip to Southern Oregon and joined my friend on his turkey hunt. Reallly impressed on how she ran... Can't wait till I can't try her out in the desert... if it ever quits raining here. Took the oppurtunity for a photo on a gas stop. That's Mt Shasta in the background.

First and foremost welcome to the forum!
First you say you'll take all answers,....but it's unlikely for you to get any actual answers...meaning facts, opinions on the other hand is what you will get from just photos because no one can positively ID or certify your rocks or meteorites from a photo/s....
....and then you say this to someone who gave you an opinion, thus not making it conducive for any others to want to give you further opinions.IMHO
Our members here are happy to help as much as they can, but when you don't like what you hear it not in your best interest to get upset with their opinions.
So as an Administrator here I say thread lightly and don't wear your heart on your sleeve.

Boulder Dash strikes again. Tom and I owe our first encounters with the metal detector to Mr. Dash. He has helped so many in the past it's time for a big 'Hurrah' for the guy. Well done my man.
Old Tom

Garifox
you should be completely confused and befuddled by now.
If money is a concern start small...
If you must have the newest, brightest toy; go BIG!
When I started in 1980 I had visions of big nuggets and great wealth...my first detected nugget came after many vain and false starts...the size of a grain of rice!!!
What a thrill, what a memory!
I have done moderately well since, learned a lot and made many great friends. There in lies the real gold.
good luck
fred

Sorry to hear the news.
Thank you Sir for sharing all your knowledge.
Dear Lord, Please take care of the wonderful and thoughtful man we in the prospecting community were so blessed to have and please ease the pain in the hearts of his family and friends. In Jesus name -Amen.

I don`t think that the consumer should have to jerry-rig a brand new product for that price.
The problem is that there is a large learning curve to drywashing. You can not just buy a new unit, and be successful without delay. I would imagine , most of the purchases are new to the hobby and they wont have a complaint because they do not even know there is a problem. The simplicity of the older boxes are much more user friendly.

Funny that you should mention that, as that is exactly what I did today. I worked my way up a small wash where that rattler had slithered out of, and then had crossed the road where I got the photos of it. I got about 4 to 5 chunks of lead targets first out of this hammered wash, and then got this nice signal up on the side bank about 18" above the actual low point of the wash. The nugget ( just .03 shy of 1-gram) was down about 5" and covered up with rocks that had been slammed up against the bank from a time when the wash had been really running and moving a lot of overburden ( I call it a "push",..or rock-pile-up). Also got a couple of photo's of a very sleepy Horned lizard,.that did not want to move, and completely ignored me as I detected over it's body;...check out it's coloration (camo). Gary

Garik,
Not wanting to bust your bubble...but just keep in mind that there are some people who it took years to find their first nugget, others not so long but still metal detecting for gold is said to be one of the hardest ways to find gold, and then there are people who have been doing this for a very long time and because they know how to do the proper research for new areas and know what to look for out in the field to hunt for gold and those guys are usually the ones who can possibly pay off their detectors, most never do.
One of the best ways to find gold in the desert is to do your research find some small and fine gold in the dirt by testing and then bust your ass running all the material down to bedrock through a dry washer, you will still want a metal detector to help out doing this but start slow and get a good detector that will hit on small gold, the Gold Monster, GoldBug or White 24K, the PI detectors are nice for hitting deeper gold and shallow gold but I would work my way up to a PI....if you prove to yourself you can find gold to began with.
So again I would start slow get a good VLF detector and if you find metal detecting is not what you hoped it would be you can still sell the detector for good price although it will still be less than what you paid for it and hopefully if you found any gold you will come out OK and not lose any money.
I wish you the best of luck but I wanted you to look at the reality of this and go out and enjoy yourself in the beautiful desert more so than to get out there and be disappointed if you don't do as well as you hope you would.

Hi guys,
I was in Bendigo that day and have been in the area for over a week now. They allow people to hunt for gold in their parks. Bendigo is a pretty big city and it is like having LSD as part of the greater city. They don't turn their parks into Monuments, National Recreation areas or State Parks which make them off limits to detecting.
There is a follow up to that story.
When you are in Australia prospecting in the parks or the forests (there is a difference) you need what is called a Miner's Right to keep the gold you find. There is some 'question' if you need to be looking for it or just take it if you weren't looking.
The story now goes that they little girl who found the nugget and her dad did not have a Miner's Right (license) which only costs $20 for 10 years. It is unknown what is going to happen to them or the nugget based upon the law.
On another story, about the same day up in Wedderburn which is northwest of Bendigo some was walking and found a 7.5 oz nugget. They didn't take it to the papers and they don't have the problem with a Miner's Right!
I have a Miner's Right but I only have a couple of little nuggets which total to about 1g. I wish I had their problems!
Mitchel

Good luck with your new hobby! A few things to think about...
Don't mix stones of different hardness. The harder stones will beat the softer stones to death, and you’ll never get a good polish on any of them. Clean everything thoroughly between grit changes. Any course grit left over will ruin the next stage. Try to avoid tumbling rocks that have pits or other places where grit can get stuck and carry over to the next stage. Don’t ever rinse your tumbled material in the sink. The grit and sludge that comes out of your tumbler will clog your pipes like if you filled them with concrete. There are some more tips here. https://stoneageindustries.com/product/tumbling-with-rotary-or-barrel-tumblers/
I like the last pic. Looks like either fossilized coral or oolite. Neat stone either way.

The desert in summertime is a killer if you're not well prepared and even then it can still be deadly, I agree that night time hunting is a very good idea if you're detecting in the summertime.
One thing no one has mentioned is SNAKES, be sure to get a good pair of snake gaiters and or snake boots and wear them day or night in the desert, this is even more important when hunting at night, snakes are very active in the summer at night and are much harder to spot as well, also never stick your hands anywhere you can't see everything extremely clearly, better to stick the coil, your pick or a stick into an area when you can't see what's there than to get bitten on the hand by a snake trying to defend itself and never kill any snakes, you're in their home out there.

a thing to think about is...If you buy a detector from Bill , you also get instructions too...in my opinion it would be...GLOD monster for just GOLD OR Equinox 800 for general hunting, Talk to Bill about your choice on either machine...can't go wrong buying from a GREAT dealer.....my opinion.

Fred,
I would bet that the cover is PVC thermoplastic. PVC is easily reshaped at about 175 degrees. It will start losing form at about 220. Any PVC (or other thermoplastic) has a "sweet spot" as far as heat goes and that is when the inside of the piece reaches the optimum forming temperature. The surface is often much hotter and you need to be careful not to overheat the surface and small projections trying to get the core temp right. .
Slowly preheat the item in the oven to about 160 degrees and then take it the rest of the way with a heat gun (not a blow dryer. A blow dryer does not get hot enough to form thermoplastic). A round object like that could be placed on a lazy susan or some other spinning device so you could spin it and evenly heat up those fingers without taking it out of the oven. The trick is to get the core temps into the thermoforming range without overheating the surface and this takes patience. Most guys get in too big a hurry and overheat the items in one spot and warp things. That big flat surface would be easy to tweak if the heat was uneven.
I have made a bunch of PVC items like knife sheaths (Kydex), handgun holsters (Kydex), detector poles (PVC) and all sorts of mounting brackets. I have also done a pantload of plastic welding on HDPE, LDPE and ABS items. Kayaks are rotomolded thermoplastic HDPE and they are easy to re-shape, weld and modify. It is all the same with any thermoplastic as long as you know the exact temperature range you need to shape, bend or weld.
I use a laser surface thermometer and my kitchen oven to preheat the item to the proper temps for forming and then take it the rest of the way with a heat gun. I know the output temp of the heat gun because I checked it with a mercury thermometer on the various settings. Since you don't need to weld or reshape anything all you really need to do is get the piece above 160 degrees all the way to the core without overheating. I would simply pop it in the oven with a pizza pan under it and foil over it to keep an even temp. Let it sit in the heat for ten minutes or so to insure the core temps are the same as the surface temps and then push it down on the coil. It will go below the forming temps really quick and get solid fast as long as you don't get it way too hot.
There are lots of HDPE and PVC items that you could make your own covers out of for pennies. I make all sorts of stuff out of "Playskool" kids toys which are HDPE thermoplastic. Pieces big enough to form coil covers are readily available and you could form one as easily as you could fit the factory cover on your coil. I make awesome shake guards, metatarsal guards and all sorts of cool items from old kids toys. Old milk jugs, water cans and 5 gallon buckets can be easily re-shaped into almost anything you need. All it takes is knowing what type of plastic you have and the proper temperatures to form it.
You can easily weld a new bottom on a coil cover getting thin, repair a hole in a kayak or make a holster for your Glock out of a kid's toy. All it takes is the proper temperature range and filler material.

My 5000 has been collecting dust for the last 11 months.
The modded detector will run any coil a normal detector will run. I chose the 11" yesterday so I could maneuver in the grasses better than the 15" EVO previously. The gold pictured was found with the 4000 and the 15" EVO, with the exceptions of the 5 smallest (SDC), and the two found with the commander.
I really like the EVO, but if I could only choose one coil, it would be the 11" Commander. It has a great combination of depth and sensitivity. I'm very confident with it.

" I don`t think that the consumer should have to jerry-rig a brand new product for that price."
That's my whole point of this whole post...I shouldn't have to grind the tray in order for it to fit the box, or find the proper glue for the silk screen after 10 hours of use, or grind the dang screw heads that stick out and get caught on this and that. I don't see it as negative comment but constructive advice for the consumer with dollars in his or her pocket who may find my review helpful. I have bought a bunch of Keene products over a 30 year span...this one I don't care for in particular. The End.

Jim's interest in gold mining came about due to the stories told him by his grandfather, Joseph Vietti. "Grandpa Joe" frequently regaled young Jim with stories about the wild and wooly mining camps in "the old days" 50 (and more) years before Jim was born. I collect gold mining camp ghost town tokens, and when I learned that Joe turned from being a gold miner to being a saloon keeper in Delamar Nevada (The Pioneer Saloon} I put forth a considerable effort to locate a Pioneer Saloon token. When I presented it to Jim as a gift his gratitude was so great that you would have thought I had given him the Hope Diamond. As seen from the comments in this and other forums, Jim touched many lives. The Midas touch. HH Jim

The word is out that Jim has passed away. I last saw and spoke with Jim a bit over a year ago. He spent several hours on both Saturday and Sunday in the ICMJ booth with me at the Pomona GPAA show. He was a good man and wrote many books on prospecting as well as many articles for the ICMJ. It is sad to see him go. I know I posted this picture before, but its my last one with Jim.

Goldseeker4K
Congratulations on putting your project together, it certainly looks good, at least the front and rear covers do. I know there is a market for high quality stuff with good content and wish you well going forward. Bob has been known to stir a bit, but he does it with style and grace, so all things considered things could be worse.
Carry on.

Man goes everywhere is an old saying but it's also a basic truism that nobody ever gets it all, not even the best nugget shooters that score more than most. Reason(s) being: weathering, erosion, wind and water that seasonally replenishes seemingly worked out sites. Flash flooding turns creek beds over continuously, especially in desert regions. Small hillside rivulets feed nuggets into main washes, gold erodes out of the banks of gullies etc. Plus, we walk over gold and just flat miss it sometimes. But your point is well taken. The easy access and heavily worked claims tend to make the gold more scarce than the remote and harder to get to gold. But club claims still have gold waiting to be found. So it's not a bad entry level investment as a way to get started. After you master your detector(s) and develop a prospecting approach that works for you, you'll probably be a tight lipped BLM-er like a lot of experienced former club members.

I'll trade you, here in the SE, they're saying it's going to be up around 100 degrees for the next 7 to 10 days and no rain, it's not suppose to get that hot here until July and August and then only about 10 or so days out of each month, with the humidity we have around here that's a heat index of around 110 to 150 degrees!!

garikfox: What azdigger said. Starting out, that is very good advice. But whatever detector you decide to buy, I highly recommend that you take the time to make at least one purchase from the Nuggetshooter, even if it's just an accessory of some kind. And go to his storefront in Morristown and pick it up in person. Unless he happens to be extremely busy at the time, you will likely be able to get 20 minutes or more, of the most valuable prospecting/nugget-hunting advice that is available anywhere. (or not available anywhere) This will put you a long ways ahead of what you might be reading on the internet or in generalist type publications. This is the inside scoop. I kid you not. And the beauty of it is, much of it is localized information pertaining to LSD (Wickenberg) and the Bradshaw mountain area.

Hi garikfox, I've read this post with interest the last couple of days and there is a lot of really good advice in it from very experienced people. I want to add my thoughts but please keep in mind I've only been at this for a little over a year now, so I am still very new to it.
I just recently purchased a new VLF gold detector. I did my research and it came down to either the 24k or Gold Monster 1000, I believe they are both excellent VLF gold machines and you can't go wrong with either one. I ended up with the GM since my local dealer sells Minelab detectors and he helped me sell an AT Gold to partially fund the purchase.
Last summer I picked up a TDI SL SE, to answer your question about it vs a GPX....there is no comparison! I'm basing that off using a GPX 5000 and TDI SL side by side, the 5000 saw both smaller and deeper targets. My understanding is the only difference between the 4500 and 5000 are a couple of added timings for the 5000 so results should be very comparable. Knowing that though the TDI is still my go to prospecting machine, being as lightweight as it is I find it way more comfortable to swing than the GPX.
I hopes this helps sir.

I didn't even think of a PI detector until down the road. Just remember to invest wisely. Dont spend more than you have to. Also, most people keep their vlf machines when they bump up to a PI. For me , I got the gold bug 2 for myself, the gm1000 came shortly after. Sdc2300 around 1 year later.

Got out today around the LSD area, and waved to Bill as we passed each other . The thunderstorms almost bullied me out of this spot , but I stuck it out.
Glad I hung around, as I found a very fine piece of wire gold...Enjoy !

That was a good decision.
I did not see the Whites GMT 24K in your list . You should consider it. I wish I could get my hands on one for a day.
For gold nuggets and you being new user, I would recommend the Gold Monster 1000 , or the Whites GMT 24K .

desert is hard on plastic. gone for six months got back to the cabin, had ten five gallon plastic water jugs store in the shade. the tops of the jugs lifted off at the water line of the jugs which were only about 3/4 full. replaced them with glass jugs.
if you don't replace the coil cover soon as you get it. will shrink. coconut oil won't react with plastic so warming with a hair dryer will exspand it enough to slip it on.

I'm really sad to hear that as well. We corresponded vis email a number of times and have an autographed book from Jim. Jim and I knew some of the same people and hunted in the same areas but we never met. What a loss.
RIP Jim